A recent guest commentary in The Tower, the independent newspaper at Catholic University, leads to questions about what the Church’s institutions, including the Church itself, teach the faithful about the faith. “My Catholic beliefs regarding immigration, social justice, protecting the environment, and war are well supported by the Democratic Party, and so I’ve always identified myself as a Democrat,” sophomore Jessica Smith wrote in a column which appeared on September 3, 2010. “However, my views differ from that of the national Democratic Party when it comes to the issue of the dignity of human life.”

“A lifetime of Catholic education and an active role in parish life have taught me that life begins at conception and ends at the time of natural death.” Jessica deserves great credit for her fealty to Catholic teaching.

Nevertheless, the quartet of other “Catholic” issues she enumerates are ones on which reasonable Catholics can differ while abortion is literally a matter of life and death. For example, “just war” theory anyone?

Still and all, I understand where she is coming from. In 20 years I have heard many more homilies about saving the earth and the West Bank than I have about saving babies.